Subject: ETX - Suggestion for Solar Viewing.
Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2008 17:04:09
From: Derik Palmer (derikpalmer@gmail.com)
Love your site. I've learned so much from it.
Maybe I'm telling grannies how to suck eggs but perhaps this tip will
interest some of your readers. There are very good warnings about
viewing the Sun and rightly so; always remember to fit the solar filter
(preferably a screw-on one, there's less chance of it falling or blowing
off) and always make sure the objective of the finder is covered as
well. But when you've done this, it's surprising how hard it can be to
line the scope up with the Sun, big as it is!
I found a 35mm black film canister makes a good second cover for the
finder; cut down in length it fits snugly onto the one on my 125. I
painted the outside of ther canister's base white, drilled a small hole
in the centre of thebase and fitted a small bolt about an inch long so
that it sticks out of the bottom of the canister. With a washer on the
inside and another on the outside and a small nut screwed down tight the
shaft of the bolt sticks out exactly at right angles to the canister
base.
Now when I want to view the sun I use this to cover the finder. The
protruding bolt casts a shadow on the white-painted surface and you just
have to slew the scope slowly in the direction of the shadow. When
there is no shadow, you're right on target!
I don't know if the film canister will fit all ETX finders, but if not
maybe a binocular eyepiece cover would do? Or a discarded plastic screw
cap?
Kind regards from cloudy London, England.
Derik Palmer.